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Pandemonium: Wizard Village
''Pandemonium: Wizard Village ''(パンデモニウム -魔術師の村- "Pandemonium - Majutsushi no Mura-") is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Shibamoto Sho. It follows Zipher, a mysterious man carrying a box. Collapsing from exhaustion, he is rescued by Domika who takes him to her village. While he slowly recovers, villagers get more and more eager to have him leave, as if hiding a secret. Shibamoto wrote ''Pandemonium: Wizard Village ''between 2013 and 2014. An official English translation was produced by Simona Stanzani on January 11, 2013https://profile.ameba.jp/ameba/simona-com and was updated every second Friday of every month simultaneously with the Japanese version, available on Shogakkan Monthly IKKI's WEB Comic Series Ikipara COMIC. The manga magazine suspended publication on 25 September 2014https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monthly_Ikki, which prompted Shibamoto to upload the series onto his Deviant Art page in 2015. Plot The story of Pandemonium starts in medias res with the protagonist Zipher carrying a heavy box while traversing a polluted and unexplored wilderness. Having had nothing to eat for days, driven forward by an obsession to find the mythical “People lurking in the sky”, he finds himself at his limit and collapses from exhaustion. Soon after Zipher is found by a mysterious woman, Domika. She takes pity on the unexpected stranger and carries him to her village despite the protests of multiple distrustful residents. Regaining his consciousness for a few moments, Zipher is startled by the unusual looks of the village peoples. Despite being initially startled, Zipher suddenly turns ecstatic proclaiming he found the “Variant village” and immediately asks to see the village chef. However, still weak from the journey, Zipher collapses once again. As Zipher recovers Domika is shown taking care of him. The moment he is able to speak again, Zipher asks about the box he carried. Having reassured Zipher that his box is safe, Domika inquiries about the wider world beyond her isolated village. Later, as Domika is preoccupied with village affairs, Zipher runs out of the house and causes ruckus throughout the village. Finding himself in the center of attention, he launches fireworks claiming it’s his way of expressing gratitude. With his performance Zipher succeeds at impressing some village residents, but also attracts the attention of the village chief Ainu. Not amused, the village chief demands to know the contents of Zipher’s mysterious box. Countering the chief’s question, Zipher implores chief Ainu to use his special “Variant village” powers to bring his lover back to life. While he waits for a response, Zipher recalls the legend surrounding the mysterious variant folk who are said to have supernatural powers, including the power of bringing the dead back to life. Village chief Ainu declines his request saying he can’t do it. Zipher doesn’t back down and gets more forceful culminating in a beatdown where he is pushed away by Kayoh, mayor’s assistant. Zipher explains that his beloved lost her life during an attack by the “Sky’s Lost Children” yet that he has preserved her in a special box as if she were still alive. Having only angered the village chief, Zipher returns to Domika’s residence and spends some time with her. Reflecting upon the strange looks of the variant village folk and the mysterious tools they use in daily life, Zipher’s resolve is strengthened and he vows to stay in the village until the village chief grants his wish. Meanwhile, in the nearby mountains a mysterious militia is pushing towards the village. Zipher spends some time getting to know the village and associating with a few of its denizens including Domika, Molte and Brow. Due to his constant insistence to meet the village chief once more, Domika sets up a second meeting between the two. Zipher is told by chief Ainu that villagers don’t have special powers, yet he remains unconvinced. Seeing the exchange, Molte taunts Zipher to kill him and see if anything death defying actually happens. Zipher refuses. Later that night it’s shown that his fireworks are being used by the mysterious militia as a guide to towards the village. A short interaction between the militia and a mysterious mouse Beatha is shown, identifying them as a special brigade that hunts “straight thunders” who are considered responsible for attacks done by the “Sky’s Lost Children.” Meanwhile in the Wizard Village tensions between Zipher and residents rise. He was supposed to leave after recovering from his injuries, yet he persists and disturbs peace with fireworks. Zipher tells Domika about the love of his life and how they spent time together. This makes Domika breaks down in tears while Zipher still insists everyone is lying to him about the village’s supposed lack of magical powers. They’re interrupted by a fire which traps Brow in a burning building. Zipher decides to run into the fire to save Brow. The fires make him vividly remember the death of his lover. Being put into a life-threatening situation, he reflects on the possibility that villagers might not be able to return everyone back to life. Kayoh and Cosith are able to prevent further spreading of the fire. Meanwhile, a heavily burned Zipher returns from the burning building carrying Brow. Zipher breaks down in Domika’s lap crying about how he wasn’t able to save her. Having to recover from injuries again, Zipher is cared by Domika once more. Domika laments being unable to help him beyond caring for his injuries and shoddily fixing his coat. Villagers confront Zipher blaming him for the fire. Trying to help Zipher, Brow takes the blame claiming to have stolen Zipher’s fireworks. This descends into a heated argument which ends with Zipher proclaiming he’ll leave the village, but asks for villagers to magically heal his wounds in return. He is told they can’t help heal his injuries more than they already have, meaning that his left eye is forever blind. His shock is interrupted by Domika who finally decides to show him the real secret of the village. The pair descend into the mines underneath the village. Zipher is shocked to discover a graveyard of the “Sky’s lost children”. It turns out all the magic used by the village denizens comes from technology found while excavating and taking apart their decaying half-mechanical corpses; ruins which also poison the surrounding soil and sky. In fact, the variant people living in the village aren’t born in it. Considered freaks by the wider society, they gather in these uncharted and unhospitable lands to hide from the wider world. While Zipher and Domika explore the ruins, a village meeting is held. It is decided that Zipher should be allowed to stay in the village with Domika as a permanent resident, after all. Molte has a dream in which she threatens Zipher to stop spending time with Domika. After waking up Molte overhears a conversation between Domika and Zipher about her. Apparently, Molte was also originally an outsider who Domika took in a year ago. Domika worries about Molte’s parents to which Zipher comments that Molte told him she was Domika’s daughter. Molte reflects on her fears that Zipher might took Domika away from her. Meanwhile Kayoh is sent into reconnaissance around the village by the village chief to make sure Zipher didn’t bring some other trouble to the village. She finds a militia progressing towards the village and is defeated in a fight with them. Zipher is seen interacting with the villagers. Kobolgarde apologizes to him for her child starting the fire. She and Brow gift him a walking stick decorated in firework patters to help him walk, as he has lost an eye. Molte confronts Zipher about his relationship with Domika. She claims Zipher is trying to replace his ex-lover with Domika who is naively attracted to the outside world. Zipher suddenly realizes that there’s something he must do and decides that he really shouldn’t be in the village. Later that day Domika finds that both Zipher and his box are gone. Molte triumphantly proclaims to have kicked him out to which Domika retorts that Zipher has no home in the outer world to return to. Realizing what she’s done, Molte backs off as Domika runs after him. Having caught up to him slowly dragging his box, Domika embraces Zipher asking him to stay with her. The reunion is interrupted by the approaching militia. Crain, the leader of the group notes Zipher’s eye injury and attempted escape from the village, commenting that this wasn’t a part of the plan. As it turns out, there is a transmitter attached to Zipher’s box which the militia used to track the location of the village down. His fireworks were signs that he had found the village. Zipher tries to convince the militia to abandon the plan to wipe out the village, but is unsuccessful. Domika finally learns the truth about the dead girl in the box from Crain. The girl and Zipher were no lovers. They shared a special bond, yet love was merely a one-sided affair. Zipher hoped that by saving her life she would feel indebted to him and their relationship would turn into something more. The militia rounds up villagers and Kayoh is revealed to be captured, but alive. Villagers try to resist one last time. Cosith is killed and the uprising is unsuccessful. During the preparations for the slaughter of the villagers, a rock slide reveals the remains of a Sky’s lost child. Domika explains that villagers neither possess any magic nor have anything to do with the Sky children’s attacks. Crain seems unconvinced and is ready to continue his plan, but Molte intervenes. She dares him to shoot her to prove that they can’t come back to life. Molte reveals that because she doesn’t belong anywhere anymore and doesn’t have a real home, she has no reason to live. Crain shoots her without hesitation. There’s a long silence in the crowd as Crain waits for Molte to be resurrected. As Molte continues to lay on the ground, Crain realizes he shot an outsider and that the villagers would not resurrect someone other than their own. As Crain debates on who his next target should be, Zipher runs towards his box. He opens it, ruining the pristine body of his precious Anna. Crain is shocked, knowing Zipher ruined his chance to resurrect her. Knowing that Zipher would never miss a chance to have Anna back, he realizes the truth in its full horror. The militia, now knowing there is no magic in the village and that the villagers are powerless, decides to leave. In a moment of extreme luck, Molte is found to be alive after all due to her locket which deflected Crain’s bullet. Zipher apologizes to Domika and confesses his love to her. After burying Anna he quickly leaves the village. Sixteen years in the future Molte is shown to be a teacher and storyteller, narrating the story of what happened in the Wizard Village to her students. Following the events Zipher put in motion, the separation between variants and regular people started to slowly fade. The wider world heard of what happened in the Wizard Village due to Zipher’s efforts. The ruins of dead Sky children and “the land of the variant” are still under control of those villagers who decided to stay there. It is revealed that Domika went after Zipher. The two married, adopted Molte and had children of their own. Zipher is still out there, traveling to spread the truth about variants even further out. Characters Main characters include * Zipher * Domika * Kayoh Chapters Pandemonium has two volumes and 12 chapters. Development Development on Pandemonium started in 2012... Gallery Pandemonium cover 1.jpg|Japanese edition Pandemonium cover 2.jpg|Japanese edition Pandemonium fra1.jpg|French edition Pandemonium fra2.jpg|French edition References